


Love is Like Ghosts

by truebluemoon



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Birthday, Exes, F/F, Female Relationships, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 21:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19237834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truebluemoon/pseuds/truebluemoon
Summary: Detective Greene's birthday is tomorrow, leaving her to consider her past.





	Love is Like Ghosts

Detective Lauren Greene looked up at the clock on the wall with disdain, hoping despite all logic that her shift would never end.

She watched as the minute hand ticked toward twelve, the unrelenting march forwards in time. There was no stopping time, however. It was absurd to think it could be otherwise.  Then again, Lauren had been doing a lot of absurd things lately. Despite herself, she counted the ways.

For one, vampires should be impossible, but now she had a team full of them.

Secondly, vampires should be humanity’s enemy. They’re predators after all. But they were now her friends. (Well, except Ava, maybe. She _did_ shoot the woman, after all, and quickly healed wounds are still wounds nonetheless.)

Then, there was the fact she fell for a humongous flirt of a vampire, even though she’d said she had enough of the type.

After Bobby, she was all “flirted out,” so to speak. In fact, she gave up on relationships altogether after her. But the line of flirts didn’t start with her, and it obviously didn’t end with her either.

It all began with a girl in Wayhaven Junior High named Jessica.

Lauren was new to girls – perhaps despite being a girl herself, having been a tomboy who ran with the lads, but, even with that, she knew Jessica kissing her in the 8th grade bathroom was not something girls did with just anyone. She would go home, practice kissing on her pillow, come back to school, pull her into the bathroom, make out with her, rinse, repeat. Time seemed much slower then. Thinking ahead, she even did the honorable thing and bought a ring from the toy vending machine in the grocery store, paid her 25 cents for it and everything.

She went to school the next day and told her about her plan to make an honest woman out of her. Jessica accepted the ring, but, then, the next day when she went to pull her into the bathroom, she couldn’t find her. Lauren looked high and low for her at break. She went to the gym, out on the fields, into some classrooms, even checked the library. She was nowhere to be found. That is, until she went to the bathroom and found Jessica kissing Tom Stevenson from English.

Maybe she should have learned her lesson then. Don’t bother with people free with their affections. Keep your heart guarded. Stay wary.

But then Bobby happened.

They were in a Freshman writing course together and happened to sit right next to eachother. Bobby wouldn’t stop talking to her friends, so Lauren asked her to knock it off. This would happen again, and again each day, until it became clear that she was doing it just to piss her off.

She confronted her eventually. “Why do you keep talking even though I keep asking you to keep quiet during lecture? You pick the same spot near me every class and you chatter away till my ears bleed. You could sit somewhere else. You could decide to shut up. But you don’t. It’s almost as if you _want_ me pissed off.”

At that, she laughed, loud and clear as a bell. “And? What’s wrong with wanting you?”

“I- I- Uh- What,” was all Lauren could stutter out.

“Eloquent. Why don’t you come see me sometime?” She passed her her number written on a torn-off piece of lined paper. “I promise you’ll feel a little more than “pissed off” with me, angel.”

And so they dated for two years.

She thought, at the time, that their relationship was perfectly normal. Her dad died when she was a kid, and, love her as she might, Rebecca wasn’t in the picture much. Her first and only prior romantic relationship went up in flames several years ago. She didn’t have a good basis for what a normal relationship _was_.

It started with Bobby asking her for help with classes. It was reasonable enough. She needed help; Lauren was happy to give it. But then she traded kisses for papers, sex for projects, and soon enough they were only ever together when Bobby needed something. And oh how she guilted her into it when she really didn’t have the time to assist! Then, whenever she tried to broach the subject, Bobby would play dumb, claim she had no idea what Lauren was talking about.

Finally, the last straw came when, for a journalism project, she reported on a public screw-up Rebecca made. She was working one of her top secret cases for the agency, and accidentally said something to her about how the public official she was working with was rushing her. Lauren had brought Bobby home for the weekend, eager for her busy mother to meet her ambitious girlfriend. But apparently that ambition didn’t stop at manipulating people into doing her work for her. And she took advantage. They broke up. Case closed.

That was why falling for Farah was a no-good, very bad idea. She seemed like she’d be more of the same.

It was also why she hadn’t told her tomorrow was her birthday. And why she hadn’t told her that the fall of the sand in the hourglass frustrated her more than anything. It wasn’t necessarily growing older that she feared, even if she wasn’t thrilled at the concept. It was more that she never had anyone to spend time growing older _with_. So her birthday was persona-non-grata.

But fall the sand did, as if through a sieve. Each granule tumbling toward some greater purpose. Because time was so much bigger than itself. People can be born in hours, live in years, die in seconds. It fell until she stepped through the threshold connecting the hallway to her apartment.

She flipped the switch to the lights, revealing a room full of balloons.

“Surprise!”

“Woah, what the-” Almost everyone was there. Unit Bravo, Tina, Douglas, a couple of other people from the office. Not Verda, but he probably had his hands full.

Immediately, Lauren looked to Nat. “Oh, Nat, you shouldn’t have.”

“I wish I could take credit, but this was all Farah.”

“There wouldn’t be excessive amounts of helium balloons otherwise,” Ava pointed out.

“No, no, don’t rush to thank me! The only thank you I require is to see you happy. Also, a raise, but mostly your happiness.”

“I have no control over your salary,” Lauren pointed out.

“Then your happiness it is!” Farah grinned with a flourish. “You are, right? Happy?”

Bobby never would have done anything like this. “It’s… more than I ever could have hoped for.”

“Didn’t you ever have a party before?” Morgan asked, taking a drag off her cigarette.

“No, not for me, specifically… Mum just send me cards.” Lauren rubbed at her arm awkwardly when Nat and Farah opened their mouths in shock. Tina gasped. Even Morgan paused her smoking, cigarette mid-air.

“Now, it’s your turn to be surprised, I guess,” Lauren added. The only one who didn’t look surprised was Ava, and it wouldn’t have suited her anyways.

“So no presents either?” Farah questioned. Then, she stiffened up, standing up straighter all of a sudden. “That’s it! Lauren Heather-Leather Greene, open your presents this instant!” She ordered in her attempt at a commanding tone, but somehow it just sounded silly in her voice.

She managed to crack a smile. “My middle name isn’t Heather, you know. Or Leather.”

Her arm lowered. “Close enough?”

“Seriously, open them. Or else she won’t let us hear the end of it,” Ava said.

So she went through the gifts one-by-one. First, was Tina’s. She bought her wine. Lauren was never much of a wine drinker, but she couldn’t help but smile at the bow meticulously tied on top.

Then, Ava’s present was a stack of notebooks with matching pens in the same color. It was practical. Maybe they weren’t close, but Lauren thanked her, and she meant it. She would get a lot of use out of scribbling her notes down in them.

Next was Morgan’s. She got her a switchblade. “You’re decent in combat, but a little extra insurance always helps,” She said. Lauren nodded. Maybe not something to be tossing around at work, but it could have its uses in a fight.

Nat’s was the biggest. It was a coffee machine, since she knew Lauren liked her coffee. She wasn’t sure where she was going to put it, but it was a thoughtful gift nonetheless.

Finally, it was Farah’s turn. She spun around and held out to her a small velvet box. Lauren grasped it and snapped open the lid to reveal a shiny silver band inlaid with sapphires and onyxes.

“I always see you wearing jewelry but never any rings. So I thought- haha, why not?”

She stared at it.

“I tried to find something to match your eyes but have no fear, your baby blues have no equal.”

She kept staring.

“Lauren?”

“Farah, stop talking,” Lauren said and marched up to her, one step after another, until they were face to face. Finally, she closed what little gap remained, planting a huge kiss on her lips. Farah let out a noise of surprise before melting into it, entwining her arms around Lauren’s neck, while Lauren rested her hands on the small of Farah’s back. As their lips moved against one another, she found herself dipping Farah back. Tina hollered out her approval. Morgan yelled, “get a room!”

But she ignored them as Farah’s tongue found her way into her mouth, pushing past her lips. Lauren let out a soft whine that originated in the core of her throat.

“Okay, this is getting as excessive as the balloons.”

“Oh, let them have this, Ava,” Nat muttered.

When the clock struck midnight that night, a little wooden bird popped out and let out its whistle for the whole party to hear. And Lauren found herself grinning.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this is all in-character. Please let me know what you think.


End file.
